SIR of electoral rolls begins in 12 states, UTs; TMC calls exercise a 'con job'
New Delhi (PTI): Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voters' list commenced in nine states and three Union territories on Tuesday with the TMC dubbing the exercise as a "con job" by the "compromised" poll body.
The electoral roll cleanup exercise is also being opposed by the ruling DMK and its allies in Tamil Nadu.
The Election Commission (EC) said its booth-level officers (BLOs) have fanned out to hand over semi-filled enumeration forms to electors and will also help them fill the required document.
According to the schedule announced by the poll authority, SIR will begin with the enumeration stage and continue till December 4.
ALSO READ: ECI team to visit Bengal to review SIR procedures: Official
The EC will release the draft electoral rolls on December 9, and the final electoral rolls will be published on February 7.
The 12 states and UTs where the second round of SIR will be conducted are the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
Among these, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala and West Bengal will go to polls in 2026. In Assam, another state where polls are due in 2026, the revision of electoral rolls will be announced separately as a Supreme Court-supervised exercise to verify citizenship is underway in the state.
Also, a separate provision of the Citizenship Act was applicable to Assam.
After Bihar, this is the second round of SIR. The state's final voter list with nearly 7.42 crore names was published on September 30.
ALSO READ: SIR begins in Uttar Pradesh; BLOs to visit households with forms
The SIR began in West Bengal amid soaring political temperatures over the exercise in the state.
The exercise turned into a political battleground, pitting the BJP's clout and the poll body's push for "transparency" against the Trinamool Congress' grassroots resistance ahead of the 2026 assembly polls.
While the BJP has welcomed the SIR as a step towards ensuring greater transparency in the electoral rolls, the ruling TMC has questioned its timing and intent, alleging that the EC is acting under pressure from the saffron party to manipulate the voter list ahead of the state elections next year.
With both parties treating the SIR as a prelude to the 2026 assembly elections, the contest has morphed into what many in political circles describe as "the battle of two forces, the administrative and the organisational".
TMC leader Derek O'Brien termed the SIR exercise a "con job organised by the Extremely Compromised body".
Separately, the DMK, in its plea before the Supreme Court against the SIR, has dubbed it a "de facto NRC" and has challenged its constitutional validity. The ruling party in Tamil Nadu has sought the quashing of the EC's notification on SIR dated October 27, 2025.
However, the main opposition, AIADMK, an ally of the BJP, supports the exercise.
In Uttar Pradesh, the exercise was launched under the theme 'Shuddh Nirvachak Namavali – Majboot Loktantra' (Clean Electoral Roll – Strong Democracy).
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'Ab kya hoga, ye rab jane...': Tharoor takes dig at failed US-Iran talks in Pakistan
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New Delhi (PTI): Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Monday took a swipe at the "failed" US-Iran peace talks in Pakistan with an Urdu couplet, saying only god knows now what will happen.
"Ab kya hoga, ye rab jane; Na woh mane, na ye mane (only god knows what will happen now as both sides did not agree)," Tharoor said on X, tagging a post-talks video clip of US Vice President J D Vance, who led the American delegation at the negotiations in Islamabad.
The United States and Iran failed to reach a peace deal at their historic 21-hour talks in Pakistan, leaving the fate of a tenuous two-week ceasefire in doubt, with both sides attempting to hold each other responsible for the collapse of the negotiations.
अब क्या होगा, ये रब जाने
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) April 13, 2026
ना वो माने, ना ये माने https://t.co/DYrXpa7C8h
Vance said the Iranian side did not accept Washington's terms for ending the war even as the US presented its "final and best offer".
Hours after the talks collapsed, US President Donald Trump said on social media that the negotiations with Tehran failed as "Iran is unwilling to give up its nuclear ambitions".
Trump said the US Navy will actively interdict any vessel in international waters found to have paid tolls to Iran for transiting through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping route that handles roughly 20 per cent of global oil and LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas).
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the head of the Iranian negotiation team, said it is for the US to decide whether it can "earn our trust or not".
The Iranian foreign ministry, without elaborating, said the US side resorted to "excessive" and "illegal demands".
The failure to reach an agreement has dimmed the prospect of reopening the Strait of Hormuz to stabilise the global energy marke
